A night of drinking in early January led to an assault on a handicapped man found dead more than a month later, his body wrapped in a blue shag rug and left at the bottom of a steep abandoned sand pit just blocks from home, court records state.
Two women and a man were charged in the death of Nathan Marshall, 31, in early April, but the case was sealed until all three were in custody, police said.
Stephanie Serrano, 29, and James Willingham, 32, both of the Black Oak neighborhood where Marshall lived and died, are charged with murder and assisting a criminal. Cheyanne Evans, 20, also of Black Oak, is charged with assisting a criminal. She is in custody in Orlando, Fla., awaiting extradition to Indiana, police said.
The investigation into Marshall’s death required detectives to piece together evidence and interviews with partial information about the incident that began in early January when Marshall and the three defendants were drinking at Marshall’s home in the 3000 block of Gerry Street. Marshall apparently touched Serrano in a way she found inappropriate and a fight ensued, court records state.
Marshall was “physically disabled as a result of substance abuse issues and a stroke,” the probable cause affidavit states.
After the fight, Marshall was placed in the back bedroom of his home and witnesses later told police they heard conversations with the defendants and understood that “Nathan was being abused,” the affidavit states.
In late January, a relative reported Marshall missing and in early February, after receiving an anonymous call that Marshall may have been beaten to death, Lake County Sgt. Edward Jenkins went to Marshall’s home with the landlord and found damage to the walls and learned a blue rug was missing from a bedroom, the affidavit states.
On Feb. 25, a boy riding his ATV in the J-Pit, an abandoned sand mine in Black Oak, saw what he first thought was a dead deer. His father came to the scene and called police when he realized it was a human body, police said.
Serrano told Jenkins that during the drinking session, “she felt violated” by Marshall and fought with him. She said Marshall was placed in the back bedroom and “laid on the floor of the back room injured for several days,” and the trio “despite efforts to assist him … realized they went too far,” the affidavit states.
Willingham called Serrano when Marshall died, and she, Evans and Willingham drove Marshall’s body to the site where it was found, according to court records.